Who is the Orphan?

June 19, 2013

This is “NOT” a Fatherless Generation – Part 4

As I mentioned in Part 1 http://claritywithcharity.com/?p=186, it is not enough to have our own personal heart revelation of the Father heart of God without a practical outpouring. It is so awesome when we have this revelation and I believe God has it for every person! However, as we journey through our revelation it MUST change the way we interact with a lost and fatherless generation.

You are their Daddy! Or Momma! Are you 15, 22, 30, 35, 67?…Congratulations! with the revelation you have of the Father heart of God you now have the authority, position and EVERYTHING that you need to be a Spiritual Father or Mother. (Whether you have changed a dirty diaper or not!) We have a Biblical mandate of God to look after the orphan.

James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

This may be:

– literal orphan: someone whose parents aren’t alive

– spiritual orphan: someone who doesn’t know the security and love of God their Father

– emotional orphan: someone whose parent(s) are emotionally absent from their life.

This Biblical mandate is given because God knows the tragedy that happens when a nation grows up primarily Fatherless. According to the National Fatherhood Initiative (fatherhood.org) “one out of three” children “live in biological father-absent homes,” in America. They also list various effects of living without a father including:

1. “Almost four times more likely to be poor.”

2. “Children born to single mothers show higher levels of aggressive behavior than children born to married mothers.”

3. “youths in father-absent households still had significantly higher odds of incarceration than those in mother-father families.

4. “Being raised by a single mother raises the risk of teen pregnancy.

5. “Mothers who were married to fathers were at lower risk for maternal physical child abuse.”

6. “there is significantly more drug use among children who do not live with their mother and father.”

Look around you: your extended family, workplace, school, church, and community. I am confident most of us can see the face of at least one individual who needs the influence of a Godly parent in their life!

We may not be able to bring back 1/3 of our nation’s Fathers either from the dead, delinquency, or prison but we can tell the fatherless that they are not alone or forgotten. We can show them through our lives, that when you know God as Father that you can walk in freedom and wholeness, no matter what you have experienced in your life! It is up to us, the body of Christ, to be the practical expression of the Father’s heart to care for the orphan.

Next post, we will look at some ways you can care for the orphan…..In the meantime I would love to know….Is God highlighting someone for you to be a Father or Mother too? How you can be a Father or Mother to someone who is not your biological child?